March 17

Mount Agung erupts, and a law aims to reduce the amount of antibiotics used on livestock.

March 17, 1963: The Indonesian volcano Mount Agung erupts, killing over 1,000 on the island of Bali.

March 17, 2000: The film "Erin Brockovich" is released, with Julia Roberts in the title role. The true story centers on the investigation by Brockovich (at right), a feisty law clerk, into the contamination of the water supply of the town of Hinkley, California. Pacific Gas & Electric paid a $333 million settlement in the 1996 lawsuit.

March 17, 2009: U.S. Congresswoman Louise Slaughter (D-NY) introduces the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act (PAMTA). The bill's supporters say that PAMTA will reduce the estimated 70 percent of antibiotics used not for human health but for animal agriculture. Agribusiness increasingly uses massive amounts of antibiotics as a preventative measure, rather than as a cure for disease as they are intended.